Freebie Friday #36: “We’re all going to die. Come watch TV.”

Although it’s been said that everyone loves Rick and Morty, it isn’t necessarily everyone’s cup of tea. Weirdly enough, you’ll find people hating the show simply for the fact that so many people like the show–especially heterosexual white men, apparently–which is always a fun internet discussion, I’m sure!

And yet, beyond the haters, Rick and Morty has an excessively large fan base. But why? Is it the irreverent comedy? The real science? Bird Person? Really, as broken and messed up as Rick and Morty is, which presents a world in which nothing actually matters, there’s a real attempt to build an idea of the importance of human interaction. So, yes, it’s absolutely a slapstick comedy, and yet it so often presents content too smart for its stupidity.

“We’re all going to die. Come watch TV.”

What Rick and Morty really pulls off well is its ability to avoid undermining the humor with the more intellectual parts. The show isn’t a sci-fi parody, it’s legitimate sci-fi, while at the same time remaining entirely what it is: a dumb comedy.

Still, the story, the science, and the human element of the show are all taken very seriously by series creators. In the episode “Rixty Minutes”, the eighth episode of the first season, Rick shows the family the joys of inter-dimensional cable to, of course, disastrous results.

While the episode is full to the brim with as many funnies as possible, it also addresses a darker familial reality as Summer, who is using the Inter-Dimensional Goggles to explore the alternate versions of herself, only to realize that there aren’t many to speak of because she was not a planned pregnancy–in most other realities, Jerry and Beth do not conceive Summer accidentally, and thus never marry. Summer, obviously distraught, is set to run away, only to face Morty, whose time with his grandpa has a weighty view on Summer’s plight.

Morty: That, out there, that’s my grave.Summer: Wait, what?Morty: On one of our adventures, Rick and I basically destroyed the whole world, so we bailed on that reality and we came to this one, because in this one, the world wasn’t destroyed and in this one, we were dead. So we came here, a- a- and we buried ourselves and we took their place. And every morning, Summer, I eat breakfast twenty yards away from my own rotting corpse.Summer: So you’re not my brother?Morty: I’m better than your brother. I’m a version of your brother you can trust when he says “Don’t run.” Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody’s gonna die. Come watch TV.

Rick and Morty is such a uniquely humored show in that it really runs around some truly depressing realities as Rick and the Smith family struggle to deal with the complexities of human relationships. Through the show we’re given a lot of things to laugh at, but we’re also thrown several bones to chew on, which is perhaps the attraction of the show. It’s not this random anthology of funnies and a crappy family, it’s rather a complex tale of life when we’re given too broad an understanding. When you know everything there is to know, what’s left?

Beyond the philosophical discussion, if you’re a Rick and Morty fan, you’re definitely going to love this print, which reads, “We’re all going to die. Come watch TV.” Is it slightly morbid? Oh, sure! But, isn’t that what makes Rick and Morty so great?!